These words are comparable in that each denotes a body or water flowing in a watercourse or channel. Stream is the most general word in the group, embracing all the other terms in its meaning. A rill is a tiny stream , the smallest of those under discussion. A brook is usually a primary stream emerging from a spring and, like rill , has considerable poetic use. A creek is a stream which is larger and slower in flow than a brook and usually flows into a river or larger body of water. A river is a large stream of water that discharges into the ocean, a lake or another stream . In popular usage, brook creek and stream are often used interchangeably.

Of these words, only two are used figuratively as well as literally. Stream and river both may refer to a continuous flow of anything, as well as to a flow of water.

• A stream of people isused from the theatre; The battlefield flowed with rivers of blood.